Deals
Space-Tech Startups Raise Record Funding Amid Billionaire Hype
- VCs poured record $5.5 billion into space startups in 2020
- Branson, Bezos’s rocket adventures fuel space tourism hopes
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Billionaire space entrepreneurs like Jeff Bezos, Richard Branson and Elon Musk have raised the public profile and plausibility of commercial space travel in recent years. The hype has helped fuel a wave of funding into startups building the infrastructure to bring the new space race from science fiction to reality.
Space-related technology is a $200 billion market that spans companies building products and services to use on Earth, in orbit or for space exploration and colonization missions. Venture capital investment in such companies reached a record $5.5 billion in 2020, according to market research firm PitchBook. The industry is on pace to top that milestone with $3.6 billion raised across 94 deals in the first six months of this year.